Nooooooooooo!vember

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Wow, that's a first. I was out the door at 4:45 a.m. for my morning plod, 

This is the life!

4:45 AM!  Quarter to bloody FIVE.  This is not the life... this is crazy madness!

Buy hey, that's what makes you a runner...

That's true Charlie, it is doing the insane, tackling the impossible, getting up in the middle of the night to go for a jog, that makes us runners, um, special.

By contrast, today's run was a daylight event. 9:15 a.m.! Ridiculously late in the day, it was very warm, very muggy and atrocious running conditions. The streets were busy with traffic, landscape gardeners, builders, maintenance crews, road works, leaf blowers, jack hammers; you name it, I had to dodge it all as well as cope with the heat and humidity. It was very tough, so tough I even had to walk the last two hills. I deliberately did not look at my watch through the run and thought it would turn out to be a very slow one, but in fact my pace wasn't too bad. So tough as the run was, I am pleased with the result and very glad I made the effort.

Also pleasing were the numbers spat out by my bathroom scales. Finally, all the important vital signs; weight, muscle mass, basal metabolic rate and so on have turned the corner and are finally all headed in the right direction. This is great news, and only spurs me on to continue my disciplined approach of running on alternate days. With a rest day between each run, you get the results but not the injuries.

Speaking of such things, Terry is still throwing the occasional tantrum, and may yet have to be sent to the doctors, but on the whole is much better since my return to the world of running, so I remain optimistic.



Some people don’t have the guts for distance racing. The polite term for them is 'sprinters'.